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Thursday
December 06, 2012
Ward Lake: Trumpeter Swans
Low-light evening shot of a new flock of Trumpeter Swans at Ward Lake.
Front Page Photograph by MIKE SMITH ©2012
(Please respect the rights of photographers, never republish or copy
without permission and/or payment of required fees.)
Alaska: National Report: Alaska Ranks 1st in Protecting Kids from Tobacco - For the third year in a row, Alaska ranks first in the nation in funding programs to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit, according to a national report released today by a coalition of public health organizations.
Alaska currently spends $10.9 million a year on tobacco prevention and cessation programs, which meets the funding level recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Other key findings for Alaska include:
• Alaska this year will collect $103 million in revenue from the 1998 tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes and will spend 10.5 percent of it on tobacco prevention programs.
• The tobacco companies spend $17 million a year to market their products in Alaska. This is two times what the state spends on tobacco prevention.
The annual report on states' funding of tobacco prevention programs, titled "Broken Promises to Our Children: The 1998 State Tobacco Settlement 14 Years Later," was released by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Lung Association, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights. The report assesses whether the states have kept their promise to use a significant portion of their settlement funds, as well as tobacco taxes, to reduce tobacco use.
"Alaska is setting an example for the nation with its strong and sustained commitment to preventing kids from smoking and helping smokers quit," said Matthew L. Myers, President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "Tobacco prevention is a smart investment for Alaska that is saving lives and saving money by helping reduce tobacco-related health care costs." - More...
Thursday PM - December 06, 2012
Alaska: Healthy Alaskans 2020 survey results released; Alaskans weigh in on health priorities - Preliminary results from the initial Healthy Alaskans 2020 survey have been released. Alaskans were invited to take the survey between Sept. 17 and Oct. 22, 2012. The results will be used to formulate the next survey, which will be designed to further narrow the list of leading health issues. The process is expected to guide health efforts in our state based on common health goals over the next decade.
According to the more than 1,500 Alaskans who responded to the survey, the top 10 health issues important to Alaskans, in order of priority, are: - More...
Thursday PM - December 06, 2012
Southeast Alaska: Study Examining The Impact Of Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corporation On Alaska's Economy Found Significant Return-On-Investment And Opportunities For Growth - Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corporation (PWSAC) recently released the results of a comprehensive study by the McDowell Group on the impact of its programs on the economy, Alaska's seafood industry, sport, subsistence and personal use fisheries. Significant benefits to the state and regional economy were outlined, along with ways in which the programs could be expanded to produce greater economic benefit. The study covered direct and indirect job creation and earnings. The study also examined market conditions for salmon species.
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Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corporation operates five hatcheries in the Prince William Sound and Copper River regions. These hatcheries generate millions of pink, chum, coho, sockeye and Chinook salmon for the common property commercial, sport, subsistence and personal use fishermen. PWSAC is a private nonprofit corporation established to produce hatchery-born, ocean-raised wild salmon for the commercial, sport, personal use, and subsistence fisheries of the Prince William Sound (PWS) region. - More...
Thursday PM - December 06, 2012
Alaska: Fairbanks #2 on Top 10 U.S. Travel Destinations - Lonely Planet, the top travel guidebook publisher in the world, today released its annual list of the "Top 10 U.S. Destinations for 2013," and Fairbanks, Alaska landed high atop the list in the number two position based on its Arctic skies that crackle with smoky blues, greens and reds. The northern light displays of Fairbanks has long drawn interests and 2013 will be big, marking the end of a fiery 11-year-cycle, when sunspots are particularly feisty, making for a big show in the Fairbanks' sky 240 nights a year.
Every year the U.S.-based editors team up with Lonely Planet’s expert authors to compile a list of U.S. destinations that are prime for the next year. Lonely Planet's 2013 picks are literally all over the map: once-in-a-lifetime northern lights, new top-tier museums, moose trails, Polynesian paradise and barrels of bourbon.
The locations were selected and ranked by the company's team of U.S.-based editors and authors. Top 10 destinations on the list according to their rankings: - More...
Thursday PM - December 06, 2012
Southeast Alaska: Coast Guard, Sitka Mountain Rescue locate overdue boater near Sitka - The Coast Guard and Sitka Mountain Rescue located a missing boater and safely reunited him with his family in Sitka Sound Tuesday.
A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Air Station Sitka located the 85-year-old man aboard his 32-foot fishing vessel Saltshaker and directed a Sitka Mountain Rescue small boat crew to his location to provide assistance.
Coast Guard Sector Juneau watchstanders were contacted by the man’s son Tuesday evening who reported that his father hadn’t returned from a hunting trip after the two became separated.
The Coast Guard directed the launch of the helicopter crew and requested that Sitka Mountain Rescue deploy a boat crew to assist with the search. - More...
Thursday PM - December 06, 2012 |
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Alaska Science: Researchers Pinpoint 1,500-Year Cycle in Arctic Atmospheric Pattern - A team of scientists supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) has identified for the first time a clear 1,500-year cycle in the far North's surface atmosphere pressure pattern. Called the Arctic Oscillation (AO), the cycle greatly influences weather in the Northern Hemisphere.
Researchers take samples aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy in the Arctic.
Photo by Joseph Ortiz, Kent State University
Courtesy National Science Foundation
Lead researcher Dennis Darby, a geological oceanographer at Virginia's Old Dominion University, used the findings to describe a worst-case scenario in which the cyclical pressure pattern could combine with man-made climate change to exacerbate severe weather and flooding trends.
William Wiseman, a program director in the Arctic Natural Sciences Program in NSF's Office of Polar Programs, said the new research is innovative in its approach to separating human influences on climate from naturally occurring events.
"Separating the effects of human contributions to climate variability from those due to natural variability is never easy," he said. "Darby and his colleagues, using clever analyses of sediment data, have noted an important long-term variation in sediment transport that is consistent with variability in the Arctic climate on similar time scales. This work adds one more piece of information to our understanding of a very complex system."
Working from a 20-meter-long sediment core raised offshore of Alaska from waters 1,300 meters deep, the researchers could detect varying amounts of iron-rich sand grains ice-rafted from Russia over the last 8,000 years. The core was originally recovered from the flank of Barrow Canyon by an NSF-funded oceanographic cruise on which researchers Lloyd Keigwin, Julie Brigham-Grette and Neil Driscoll were co-investigators. - More...
Thursday PM - December 06, 2012
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Questions, please contact
the editor at editor@sitnews.us or call 617-9696
Sitnews reserves the right to edit.
 Deposit for services By
Gladys Natkong -
I have been in Alaska since 1989, I came back to Alaska to be with my mother who was sick, I decided to stay after she passed. So I am from Alaska and don't have any plans to move. I am wondering if what happened to me has ever happened to anyone else. I can't remember even getting my lights hooked up, it was so long ago, but I remember that I did put up a deposit. I think I eventually got it back. I usually pay my bills before I do anything, but I was caught up in a family matter and when I checked my bank account I saw that I hadn't paid my light bill. Then a man from the Ketchikan light company came to the door and said that he was there to shut off the lights and that I better call the office. I called the office and the lady in charge of credit said that I had to pay my bill in full and pay a $395.00 deposit by Friday (It was Tuesday) to keep my lights on. I tried to explain that I forgot because of family emergencies and she asked if I got energy assistance and I said yes. She said get them to pay it. The total amount that the light company wanted was $695.00. I told her that my disability check couldn't even pay that. - More...
Thursday PM - December 06, 2012
Lisa Murkowski and the United Nations By
Marvin Seibert -
Recently the Senate voted to reject the UN treaty for disabled rights in a 61-38 vote, 5 shy of passing. On the surface this sounds like a very Callous vote by the Senate Republicans. The truth however lies in the details! If this vote would have passed then the U.N. would create new abortion rights and impede the ability of people to home-school disabled children just to start with. The treaty would infringe on U.S. sovereignty, an argument echoed by other opponents. - More...
Thursday PM - December 06, 2012
Filipino Community of Ketchikan's New President By
Joey Garcia -
The Filipino Community of Ketchikan recently has turned the gavel to a newly elected President Alex Millendez. His prowess in getting the group together will enhance a plan for the 2013 agenda that will entail lots of camaraderie within the membership group. - More...
Thursday PM - December 06, 2012
Re: Property Taxes By
John Harrington -
Mike Fay was stunned last year when he got his tax bill for a waterfront home valued at over $170,000. Why? He had to pay almost $1000. He complains that there are no schools, way up there. That is true, also there are no students; but nonetheless the State of Alaska requires the Borough to pay almost $500 toward funding schools for his property. And the Borough pays every cent of his taxes to support schools, and then some. - More...
Monday PM - December 03, 2012
Re: The girl who gave up By
Kathy Stack -
I want to thank you for your story Jordan. I have a hole in my heart due to a brother commiting suicide in 1990. I think your story will help others and I want you to know I appreciate you for writing and publishing it. - More...
Monday PM - December 03, 2012
King Island Christmas By
Jacquie O'Sullivan -
I just returned from the Ketchikan Community Choir's performance of King Island Christmas. It was outstanding. They all did a terrific job putting it on. Singing was terrific, settings and artwork were great and the story is uplifting and fun for all ages. - More...
Monday PM - December 03, 2012
Property Taxes By
Mike Fay -
I was stunned last year when I got my tax bill for my 20-30' wood cabin way out in Misty Fiords on the Unuk River, almost $1000. That is of course after the Ketchikan Borough annexed the properties on the Unuk into the Borough just a few years ago. There is no fire service, no schools, no investment up there whatsoever and yet we are paying more and more every year. - More...
Friday PM - November 30, 2012
KSM mine threatens the Unuk river By
Victoria McDonald -
Alaskans agree that plentiful salmon runs are an important part of our lifestyle. But 2012 ended with another year of low king returns. Statewide studies are searching for answers but if we were able to ask a fish, they'd supply an easy answer: "We need clean water and healthy habitat". In southern Southeast, numerous salmon spawn in the Unuk River tributaries so it is essential that water quality be safeguarded in the Unuk and other mainland rivers. - More...
Friday PM - November 30, 2012
RE: There Once Was a Girl That Gave Up By
Bobbie McCreary -
Thank you! Jordan for sharing this very personal story of your own experience with suicide and the positive outcomes you have since achieved. This story will speak to many youth and young adults, and those of all ages, who have considered taking their lives. You have proven there is hope and a meaningful future for all... - More...
Friday PM - November 30, 2012
Tax & spend By
Ed Plute -
Wonder why taxes are going up when in the water division, for example, you have a $300,000 break-room which should not have cost any more than $10,000 max. If officials can afford to spend our money like this, why would they not dare think of raising taxes? Is everybody asleep in Ketchikan? Hold them accountable. - More...
Friday PM - November 30, 2012
The answer is NO! By
Rodney Dial -
In the news on November 26th, our Ketchikan City Manager Karl Amylon announced yet another large tax increase for the city. Apparently the property tax increase last year wasn't enough, or the shell game the City Council did when they made KPU the funding source for the non-profits, transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenditures to our utility. - More...
Wednesday PM - November 28, 2012
SAYING SO DOESN’T MAKE IT SO By
Rebecca Knight -
The Tonka Timber Sale Record of Decision, signed in March 2012, culminated a multi-million dollar, three-year planning effort on Lindenberg Peninsula, just a short skiff ride from Petersburg. The protected waters of Wrangell Narrows allow safe access for local subsistence deer hunters during our notorious fall weather. Regionwide, one of the greatest threats to deer hunters is from boating accidents. - More...
Wednesday PM - November 28, 2012
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